Family of some distinction; migrated in the 16th century from Chiesch in Bohemia; the founder of the family lived in Prague in the eighteenth century, and the members are now spread throughout Europe. The most prominent members are:

Physician, and one of the teachers of Moses Mendelssohn; born at Prague in the first half of the eighteenth century (1720?); died June 5, 1803. Compelled to leave Prague with his coreligionists in 1745, he went to Germany. During his sojourn at Breslau he founded a ḥebra ḳaddisha and a hospital, both of these being modeled after similar institutions at Prague. Thence he went to Berlin, where he completed his studies under the guidance of Aaron Gumperz; here he instructed Moses Mendelssohn in Latin. In 1749 he received from the University of Halle his degree of Ph.D., and in the same year that of M.D. for his dissertation, "Theoria et Therapia Phthiseos Pulmonalis."

The empress Maria Theresa having in the meantime permitted the Jews to return to Prague, Kisch was elected physician of the community and director of the Meisel Hospital. These offices he retained until 1763.

Austrian rabbi and writer; born Oct. 5, 1848, at Prague. From 1863 to 1872 he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. He then went to Paris as tutor to the family of Baron Horace de Günzburg. In 1874 he was called as rabbi to Brüx, Bohemia, and subsequently to Zurich; in 1886 he was called to the Meiselsynagogue at Prague, succeeding Dr. A. Stein.

Austrian balneotherapist; born at Prague May 6, 1841. He received his education at his native town, graduating as M.D. in 1862. The following year he established himself at Marienbad, where he is still (1904) practising. He became privat-docent in balneotherapeutics at Prague University in 1867, and was appointed assistant professor in 1884.

Postmaster-general of Bengal; born in 1850. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1883. Entering the Indian Civil Service in 1873, he became under-secretary to the Bengal government, and assisted in the work of relief in Bengal during the famine of 1874, and at Madras in the famine of 1877. As postmaster-general, to which position he was appointed in 1884, Kisch organized the posts for the Sikkim campaign of 1888. He represented India at the International Postal Congress of Vienna, 1891, and at that held at Washington in 1897. He attended also, in the same capacity, the Imperial Penny Postage Conference at London in 1898.